The Opelousas courier., 1887-09-10
SPANISH SPORT"
How Bull Fighting is Conducted
in the City of Madrid.
Brutal Performances Witnessed
by King and Queen.

MIS-. hOuioO 49,
tributes to the Cosmopolitan an article
describing bull fighting in Madrid. She
says:
The amphitheater is an immense place.
round like the Roman Colosseum, and
the ring is surrounded by 'tcrraced
GRANTEE and crowded with galleries.
Six bulls were doomed to die for u en-
tcrtainment, but | only out-stayed The
taking off of three of them. 1t was the
last grand bulI-ight of the season, and
the audience was q brilliant one. The
young King and Queen looked down
from their box of state; old Isabella was
there with her daughters; and ad% jaccnt
boxes were occupied by lords and ladies
of high degree.
The first bull was very meek. His sole
desire seemed to be to be let alone. The
| picadores, or mounted spearmen, pricked
him with their ~lances, and he looked at
them with an injured air, as if he would
fain have said: GLOW can you? I am
a well-intentioned bull, and I deserve
nothing of this Sort One was divided
between disgust at his want of spirit and
indignation that a creature so harmless
and kindly should be foredoomed to
death. He walked up slightly when the
banderilleros came in with their darts and
their gay cloaks; but all through, n
felt that he was being %butchered
to make a Spanish holiday, without at all
taking his own part, and even the mata-
dor, whose Office it was to give him his
death wound, performed his task a little
scornfully, as if it were hardly worth the
trouble.
The second bull was a different fellow
altogether. As a young American on
my left expressed it, he was call there"
He had a %sullen, determined, desperate
nature. He gored two horses to death,
literally in an instant, just uplifting
them and running them through with
his mighty horns. He made sudden
plunges al, the banderilleros, and he
pushed the great matador himself to the
end of his resources; but at last he lay
there dead, and the team of mules
dragged him out of the arena. He was
as black as an undertaker's horse; and
he had been solemn and indignant and
s~cornfully defiant all the way through.
The third bull was a little red one, as
fiery and aggressive a creature as can pos
sibly be imagined. He did not chance
to hurt the horses but he made swift
plunges at the cloakcd banderilleros,
which it took all their skill to escape,
and once he even leaped the barrier, and
a precious CONSERVATION among
audience for a moment. This bril-
liant creature made hot work for the
banderilleros, and held ever the matador
for a long time at bay, but at last he
gamely died; the black mules dragged
him away as they had done his brothers
before him.
By this time I thought [ knew
enough about bull-ights, and [ left the
King and Queen and their court to be-
lold the other three combats without
ne and went away to walk on the pra-
10 and reflect. My sympathies were
Ill with the bulls. They were the only
Features who had no least show of fair
'lay. They alone were doomed with
bsolute certainty from the start. Even
he horses might escape; and at worst
heir torture was but for a moment. The !
Zen were only in just enough danger to
the thing exciting and there were
inety-nine chlnces out of a hundred +.
they would escape scathless; but =
ne bull, let him bear himself ever so ]
ravely, was to be made an end of. 3